The card features older Radeon HD 7950 ASIC, which lacks PowerTune with Boost; and features clock speeds of 800 MHz core, 5.00 GHz memory. It packs 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit GDDR5 interface. It draws power from two 6-pin PCIe connectors. Display outputs include a dual-link DVI, an HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPorts. The card is expected to be priced in the range of €400 and €500, a hefty premium over the roughly €250 common HD 7950 cards charge today.

So I've always wondered, do the vid card manufacturers have to license the firmware code required to make these cards compatible with the Mac OS? This isn't even a FirePro version of the card which would then make a little sense for the mark up in price. Or is it simply an example of supply and demand.... go ahead and try to get a Mac compatible card from somewhere / someone else (I know you used to be able to flash "normal" vid cards to work with Macs, not sure if it's still possible).

Hmm yeah I am not completely clear on the exact nature of the "firmware differences" but I can tell that since they went Intel you can take a "Mac GPU" and use it in a PC--but not the other way around (which makes me a little suspicious that this is another Apple-imposed 'limitation'; I don't see why you can't use a 'regular' video card in a Mac as well...).

I borrowed an 8800GT from a Mac at work back in the day to try out the NV drivers with a few titles and later some other low end card for use in my server box until my 5450 arrived (6 watts and passive woo).

So my experience tells me that this would work in a PC. Not the only white card on the market but I can see some PC builds incorporating this nice-looking product despite the premium. Also using a "Mac card" is one more thing to help you stand out from the build log crowd.

Hmm yeah I am not completely clear on the exact nature of the "firmware differences" but I can tell that since they went Intel you can take a "Mac GPU" and use it in a PC--but not the other way around (which makes me a little suspicious that this is another Apple-imposed 'limitation'; I don't see why you can't use a 'regular' video card in a Mac as well...).

I borrowed an 8800GT from a Mac at work back in the day to try out the NV drivers with a few titles and later some other low end card for use in my server box until my 5450 arrived (6 watts and passive woo).

So my experience tells me that this would work in a PC. Not the only white card on the market but I can see some PC builds incorporating this nice-looking product despite the premium.

Click to expand...

Back in the old days I would buy a PC card that had a Mac equivalent and flash the bios to the Mac version and save a few 100 bucks. This was late OS9 early OSX era. I wonder if you still can?

No one buys a Mac to game primarily still but it's a lot more possible and worthwhile than ever before both due to the Intel hardware and companies like Valve.

And as for flashing again I am not even sure what to flash exactly as I am still not convinced there is an actual low-level difference such as firmware. Somehow PC cards don't work out of the box but as I said I don't understand how/why exactly. Before Intel Macs there was a definite firmware/bios difference and neither would work on the other platform.